


the fire in you, the fire in me (the fire in us)

by ninemelodies



Category: Promare (2019)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-03
Updated: 2019-12-03
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:41:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21656176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ninemelodies/pseuds/ninemelodies
Summary: His mother tapped his chest, above his heart and slightly to the left. “As long as you can feel their warmth here, your soulmate is still alive.”Galo had placed a hand over the place she had pointed at, and made a vow to find his soulmate and protect them.or, the Promare we know, skewed to the side
Relationships: Lio Fotia/Galo Thymos
Comments: 18
Kudos: 314





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> thanks to beau and bean for listening to me ramble bout this nonstop for the past three days when i should've been doing an essay instead. oh well.

1

It’s Galo’s first day on the job, and he’s already antsy to get out in the middle of the action. He passed all his tests! He was top of his class! He knows what he’s doing even if he’s never put it into action during a real fire (the simulated fires in training don’t count). But Ignis seems content to let him watch, at least until there’s a call from Aina over the comms. There is a person trapped on the top floor, and with Varys and Remi already on the way down with another group of people, the only person available to help is Galo.

Ignis protests. There’s no mech made for Galo yet, no way to keep Galo safe from the searing heat of the Burnish flames. But Galo is stupid and resourceful, so he belts out his plan with no hesitation. The fire retardant they use is like a gel, and should stick long enough for him to get to the person trapped. So Galo douses himself in the sickly green fire retardant and sets off.

It goes well until the person he rescues (Thyma, he thinks is her name) wakes up. Galo is hovering over her, closer than is probably necessary, but he knows how much smoke she inhaled and he’s worried. There’s a hand on his shoulder, and he hears Aina telling him to back off so the paramedics can get to Thyma when they get there. But Galo isn’t listening. Something is happening.

The air around him smells like ozone and ash, but it’s not from the building still smouldering behind him. No, it’s from the girl he just rescued. Galo had thought she was fine, but now that her adrenaline was wearing off, the fear was settling in. Thyma’s eyes are wide in panic and glowing faintly. There’s a wind, rushing upwards, and then flames following behind. Galo’s arm is burning and he’s falling back into the grass.

Aina is there in a second. She douses Galo’s arm in fire retardant before knocking out the still flaming girl. Even though Aina got there as fast as she could, Galo’s arm is still going to scar, but at least he didn’t lose his arm.

Two Burnish on bikes speed past where they’re kneeling and scoop up the girl before speeding off.

Twenty miles to the east, deep in the desert outside Promepolis, Lio is watching over the Mad Burnish hideout. They don’t know who he is, yet, but he can see Freeze Force approaching in the distance. Whenever they clash, Lio will be able to step in and assert his place as the new leader. Lio is determined to get Mad Burnish on the right track, and set them towards one goal: a city of their own, where the Burnish can be free. For now, he waits.

Lio has been a Burnish since he was little. He wasn’t born as one, but had his first Burnish flare young. He’d been on the run since then, bouncing from place to place until he was strong enough to be on his own. For years he had burned inside, brighter and hotter than anyone he had met, and because of that he had forgotten what it felt like for his flesh to _actually_ burn. He blames this on why he didn’t recognize the feeling in his arm until it was blinding.

Detroit fizzles out underneath him, dropping Lio to his knees as he tries to smother his yell of pain. He can feel his own flames lashing out, licking over his arm to try and heal what was broken. Lio fumbles, yanking his jacket off and his sleeve up, only to be met with unblemished skin. He’s not burning, and as soon as he realizes this, the pain subsides. It’s a dull pain now, simmering underneath his skin. Lio fixes his shirt and puts his jacket back on, still in pain and confused.

But he doesn’t have time to lament on it because in the distance he hears the first shots being fired from a Freeze Force issued pistol. It’s time for Lio Fotia to step in and become the leader of Mad Burnish.

2

Lio surveys the fight from atop his throne. He knows how he looks from an outsider’s perspective. Intimidating, powerful, and unaffected. It’s why he made his armor so much larger than himself. He can’t let people know the truth - that he’s small, frail looking, and cares too much about his people. Something flickers on the edge of his heart, breaking his concentration. He recognizes it as an emotion, but it’s not his own, and it’s _arrogant_. Lio scoffs.

After the incident in the desert, Lio has had several other smaller ones. He had been with Meis and Guiera one time the spasm had hit and he’d nearly stumbled into a wall. His leg had buckled, and he swore he’d heard his knee crunch like it’d been broken. Once he assured them he was fine, he explained what had been happening. Unexplainable bouts of emotions that felt foreign, situated in the area just behind his heart, not as powerful as his own but just as distracting. Aches and pains appearing and then disappearing, the _burning._ Meis and Gueira had looked at each other, grinned, and then looked back at Lio. “You have a soulmate!”

Lio was less than impressed.

It had gotten worse since then. It was like being aware that what he was feeling was connected to his soulmate just made the bond stronger. Lio hated it. His soulmate seemed to be emotionally volatile, and Lio found the bursts of emotion to be distracting. He had people to protect and lead, he couldn’t stand to be distracted or they’d all be at the mercy of the Freeze Force.

But now, here atop his throne, it seemed to be morphing into something else. Lio’s tongue ached from where his soulmate had bit theirs earlier. A flash of indignation skittered across his heart followed by pride. Snippets of thoughts, impressions more than words kept scurrying in between his plans. It was just one more voice added to the cacophony that was the inside of Lio’s head. The voice telling him to burn, burn, burn, mixing with another voice that wanted to save people from the fire.

The man below him was transforming into a different type of mech. He even has a powerpoint! _Idiot,_ Lio thinks, echoing his general’s sentiments.

_I am not! Get out of my head, whoever you are!_

Lio jolts at the clear voice in his head. The voice in his head, not the one that urged him to blaze like the sun, but the new one, had never been that clear before. Meis and Gueira had mentioned once, off-hand, like it was something known from experience, that soulmate bonds grow strong when in close proximity. But Lio’s general’s are captured now and the man below is yelling at him to fight one-on-one, Lio can no longer afford to be a spectator to this fight. And well, Lio is also never one to back down from a challenge. So Lio stands, summons Detroit, and prepares himself for a fight.

In the middle of their fight, when Lio’s mask breaks, surprise, followed by pity makes its way into the space surrounding his own emotions.

 _He’s just a kid!_ “You’re just a kid!”

“You’re one to talk!” Lio shouts back, frustration coloring his voice. There’s a thought worming it’s way into the back of Lio’s mind, not clearly formed yet but becoming stronger. It’s telling him that this arrogant, loud-mouthed blue haired man in front of him is his soulmate.

By the time that Lio has the blue haired man pinned to the ground, stripped of armor with a sword pointed at his throat, he’s pretty sure he’s won. But then that arrogant, prideful feeling blooms behind his heart. The man below him is talking.

“I’m…” _We._ “We’re a rescue team!”

Something clicks at Lio’s back and suddenly he’s frantically fighting back an onslaught of ice bullets. He launches himself upwards, only to get smacked back down to the earth. Lio stumbles once, knocking into a piece of the other man’s mech. It latches onto his shoulder, and before he knows it Lio is trapped into a rapidly cooling mech prison.

The blue haired man approaches through the mist, pistol up and at the ready. Lio doesn’t miss the shiver that passes through the other man.

The man presses a button and the mech falls into pieces, only for it to be replaced with ice restraints. Lio straightens up to his full height, challenge bleeding into his every move, declaring war with his gaze and the blaze in his heart. The blue haired man slouches down to press their foreheads together, and Lio understands that his challenge has been accepted and met.

“My name is Galo Thymos! Don’t you forget it!” Galo’s eyes are burning.

“Lio Fotia.” _As if I could, Galo Thymos._

Galo jerks back, eyes wide and mouth open in surprise.

Freeze Force shows up and hauls Lio off before Galo can say anything.

3

Galo probably should have told Aina where he was going before speeding off from the lake. But he could see the Burnish comet streaking towards the earth, and the closer it got, the more worry overtook Galo. It wasn’t his. That comet must be the Burnish leader he had captured a few days before.

It had been a shock, for sure, actually meeting his soulmate. As a kid, Galo had always hoped he would. His parents were soulmates and Galo could see the love in their eyes every time they were together. He wanted that, wanted someone who understood him more completely than anyone could. He wanted someone that shared his soul and his heart.

Galo’s wish had been granted when he was a kid. He had been playing outside, digging up worms from the soft earth underneath his porch, when a blazing started in his heart. Galo had hiccuped, thinking maybe it was heartburn when it spread. It felt like he was burning from the inside out, and a fear more intense than he had ever felt lodged itself in his throat. He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move.

His mother found him collapsed in the backyard an hour later. She had cleaned his face of tears and dirt and he explained what happened. “Oh honey,” she had said, face soft and eyes warm. “You’ve got a soulmate, and they just went through something terrible.”

“Are they okay?”

She tapped his chest, above his heart and slightly to the left. “As long as you can feel their warmth here, they’re still alive.”

Galo had placed a hand over the place she had pointed at, and made a vow to find his soulmate and protect them.

Now, almost 20 years later, Galo finds himself in a cave, making eye contact with a wounded Burnish child over the top of his pistol. The kid looks so sad, so tired, and Galo finds himself lowering the pistol when he feels surprise and irritation take root in the spot in his chest reserved for his soulmate. There’s a sound behind him before Galo’s world goes dark.

Lio was not expecting Galo Thymos, of all people, to find them in a cave halfway up a mountain. He guess he should’ve realized that the man was just that bullheaded. But...when he caught Galo watching his people, there was no anger, no hate coloring his heart. It was something more like pity. Lio isn’t sure what to make of that. It’s probably the only reason he leaves in the cave with them.

When Meis and Gueira ask him about it, Lio isn’t sure how to explain without ousting himself. But judging from the sly look Meis and Gueira share when they think Lio isn’t looking, they already suspect.

Galo wakes slowly. His feet are numb from being tucked under him, and there’s a rock digging into his spine. He is not surprised to be tied up, but he’s embarrassed to find that he’s been _drooling._ Oh god, what must the Mad Burnish leader think of him now?

“My name is Lio Fotia, and I still think you’re an idiot, Galo Thymos.” Lio’s sitting across from him, perched on a rock like it’s the most comfortable place in the world.

The fire illuminates the cave behind Lio in shades of pink and blue, it throws a shadow across Lio’s face and makes his eyes burn, and Galo thinks he’s beautiful. It’s not shocking to Galo, how quickly he had accepted the thought of Lio Fotia, leader of the Mad Burnish, as his soulmate.

_Even your thoughts are loud, Galo Thymos._

Oh, Galo had forgotten about that. But then Lio’s words catch up to him and he’s sputtering in indignation. “I’m not-!”

“Be quiet,” Lio hisses, holding a small flame with his fingertips and illuminating a bag full of supplies Galo hadn’t seen before. “We’re having a meal.”

And Galo’s mouth moves before he can catch up to it. “Burnish eat?”

Lio’s face darkens, and he sends the small flame forward. It hovers in front of Galo’s face before exploding. It stings, like he’d been flicked in the nose. Galo flinches back and doesn’t miss the way Lio does the same. “Of course we eat, Burnish are human too. We don’t eat, we die.”

Galo looks down at his feet and shame makes his cheeks burn. “Sorry,” he mutters, and he can tell by the way that Lio’s irritation smooths over that Lio knows he’s serious.

But before they can discuss it, whatever is is, anymore, one of the older Burnish gets Lio’s attention. There’s a girl on the ground, wrapped in bandages and breathing unevenly. Galo wants to help, but when he tries to offer, Lio silences him.

 _I can handle this_ , Lio tells him, but Galo can’t feel the conviction behind the words. Lio knows in his heart he’s going to fail, even though he’s trying to convince himself it will succeed. Snippets of Lio’s previous failures flash across Galo’s mind. Lio has failed before, and he fails again. The girl dies, fades into ashes, and the grief that’s clogging Galo’s throat isn’t completely his own. Outwardly, Lio betrays no signs of grief. He stands tall and strong in front of Galo, but Galo can tell by the curve of his mouth and by the weight of his heart that Lio is hurting.

Lio explains to him how Burnish death works. The fire fuels them but also destroys them, and when they’re no longer alive to support the flames, they’re consumed completely. Galo isn’t sure he likes the certainty that lives in Lio’s heart and colors Lio’s words, like Lio is sure that he’s not coming out of this war alive.

One of Lio’s generals shows up then, and the Burnish file out into the truck. Lio is the last to leave, but Galo has one more question, one more idea. He just has to get Lio to stop, just for a second. So he taunts, turns to old habits and tricks. “Running again?!” It works, Lio stops, half turned towards Galo, and Galo knows this is the best indication to continue that he’s going to get. “Can’t you guys just stop starting fires? You wouldn’t have to run then, you could live normally!”

“Do you really believe that?” It’s a rhetorical question, Galo knows that Lio can feel the conviction behind his words. But the longer Lio stares into Galo’s soul, the more Galo begins to doubt. That pizza maker had been living normally, hadn’t he? And Freeze Force had taken him and the shop’s owner into custody. For what? A mutation he couldn’t control? Lio interrupts his thoughts. “You’re an idiot, Galo Thymos. If that pizza maker couldn’t live in peace, how could any of us? The reason Thyma died is because of the Foresight Foundation. They’re experimenting on us. They’re experimenting on _humans._ ”

Galo jerks in his bond at the mention of Kray Foresight. The Governor was his hero, there was no way he would be doing something like that! But...Lio isn’t lying, Galo would be able to tell.

Lio seems to understand this. “Keep living in denial, if you want, but you know I’m telling the truth.” He turns and is gone, ignoring Galo’s pleas for him to wait.

4

Galo, stubborn as he may be, can’t ignore the evidence Lio presented him with. Which is how he finds himself sitting cross-legged in the lobby of the government building, tapping his finger on his knee and waiting for Kray to return from his errand.

Kray is surprised to see him. Galo normally didn’t bother the Governor, he knew that the man was busy and that any sort of prolonged contact could be seen as favoritism. For years, Galo did everything the way he did so that he didn’t make the Governor look bad, and now? Now Lio Fotia, of all people, had informed him that his hero was a murderer. The medal sitting on Galo’s chest _burned._

So he takes it off. He sets it gently on Kray’s desk and explains the reasoning for his visit. Kray’s features don’t change, but Galo can feel the tension radiating off the man as they descend into the depths of the government building. And like Galo already knew, Lio wasn’t lying, Kray was experimenting on the Burnish, using them to fuel the warp gate that would take him and his 10 thousand chosen ones to another planet, leaving the rest of the human race to perish under the magma.

Galo understood why Kray was doing this. He knew better than anyone the urge to save people, to help everyone possible, but Galo knew that Kray’s way of doing it wasn’t right. It was the cowards way out. Kray was going to doom everyone to save his own hide. It made disgust curl in Galo’s gut. And when Kray turned to him, asked what he would do, Galo proudly declares, “I’ll stop it! I’ll stop the magma and save the earth!”

Kray gives him a smile that feels more condescending than supportive. “I knew you’d say that. But we can’t have an idiot making a fuss, not now.” He motions to someone behind Galo.

A gun clicks at his back. Kray is talking but Galo can’t hear him over the ringing in his ears, can’t breathe over the stabbing pain in his side. For a minute, he thinks that Kray’s lackey has pulled the trigger, has shot him with his back turned. But the pain fades, a chill lingers. Galo presses a hand to his side and it comes away clean.

It wasn’t his pain, it was Lio’s. Lio was in trouble! “Gov’, you gotta-” He misses the fist headed for his stomach.

“I’ve always hated that nickname you gave me.” Kray flexes his fingers. “I’ve always hated you.” It’s unspoken, but Galo hears the true meaning of the words. Kray wishes Galo had died.

The feeling of betrayal that consumes him is too strong to be just his own. It bubbles over and Galo knows that it reflects in his eyes. His hands are numb, his body is numb, but the cold isn’t his. The flame that had taken up residence beside his own burning soul is weak and sputtering. Something is happening to Lio.


	2. Chapter 2

5

Lio spends a week encased in ice and surrounded by magma. He spends a week toeing the line between life and death. A week fighting against the bullet in his chest, against the ice creeping in around his heart. He spends a week in his dreams stewing over what happened to his people.

He remembers who betrayed them. He remembers how the Freeze Force so callously shattered his people into frozen bits. He remembers melting ice, tainted pink with blood, pooling in the desert sand. He remembers Meis and Gueira, sacrificing themselves because they believed so strongly that Lio would and had to live.

His flames respond to that. They pulse - once, twice, thrice - until they’re too hot for the ice around him to overcome. Lio’s eyes snap open and the ice encasing him shatters. Rage overtakes him, covers him in flames. Lio can feel himself changing, charring over until he’s unrecognizable. He pulls the bullet from his chest and shatters it before turning his attention to the horizon where Promepolis glitters.

Kray Foresight is going to pay.

The rage boiling in Galo’s chest startles him and takes his breath away. Galo has been mad before. He was once so angry he dug 5 feet into a frozen lake just so he would feel less like he was going to explode. But this feeling isn’t anger. It’s beyond, it’s all consuming. It makes his heart hurt.

Galo hears the roaring before he feels it. It shakes his cell, and dust rains down from the ceiling. Fire shoots through the floor, and Galo pushes himself back into a corner. As soon as they started, the flames stop, and through the new hole in his cell, Galo can see out into the city.

There’s a huge dragon shaped Burnish flare hovering over the city. Galo can’t explain how, but he knows it’s Lio. There’s a blue flame streaming out from the eye. “He’s crying.” Now that Galo focuses, digs underneath the rage and fury that Lio is using as his armor, Galo can feel the grief. The pain of a heart broken beyond repair.

Galo’s off like a shot, racing through the streets. He has to get back to the firehouse, he needs his Matoi Tech more than anything else right now. He hopes Lucia fixed it.

Burning Rescue catches up to him off of 3rd Street. As it turns out, Lucia did fix his mech and it’s better than ever. He promises Ignis that he’s got this. He tells Aina his plan, and she thinks he’s an idiot, but it’s the best thing he’s got right now. Lio isn’t going to listen to words, so Galo is going to _make_ him listen. Galo has to save Lio from himself because Lio is hellbent on killing Kray Foresight. Galo knows that if Lio succeeds, he will never forgive himself.

Lucia launches him right towards the eye of the dragon and he smashes into Lio before Lio can let loose his flames. Not that Lio would, not once he realizes just who it is clinging to him.

Galo freezes Lio out of the dragon and Aina is ready to catch them.

Every punch they connect makes Aina’s plane jerk, but with nowhere else to run, Lio has no choice but to listen to what Galo has to say. “I can feel your anger!” Galo yells, connecting fist to fist with Lio. “I was betrayed by Kray too, I know you felt it!” Lio smashes into the side of the plane, the landing cushioned by a bed of flames. “But I can’t let you kill innocent people!”

“You’re the ones who’re killing innocent Burnish!”

“Didn’t you pride yourself on not killing without reason!”

Lio freezes, fist still poised to strike. His mouth works furiously, like he’s trying to come up with something to say. But his eyes are more clear than they have been since this whole thing started, and his thoughts are something more than a screaming mantra of _burn, burn, BURN!_

Aina drops them into the frozen lake.

6

Piloting the Deus X Machina is like a dream. Lio knows what Galo wants the mech to do before Galo even knows what he wants, and Galo know what Lio is going to do before he does it. It feels like the mech took their soulmate bond and turned it up to 100.

Lio’s thoughts about the whole Promare thing are muddled. Galo can feel Lio’s hesitance to use the flames again, his fear, though he can’t tell what Lio is afraid of exactly. Still, Galo needs him.  
“So, your flames are aliens, huh? That’s a hell of a surprise.” Galo keeps his attention on the controls, let’s Lio decide if he wants to respond or not.

“What do you know?” The words lack any real venom.

“Nothing!” Galo cheerfully responds, pressing a button to right their course. “But I know that if there’s a fire, I’m gonna put it out. So you need to burn out too.”

Lio’s confusion is evident through the bond. “What?”

“Show off your Burnish pride, Lio!”

That takes Lio off guard. Even though they share thoughts and can tell what each other are feeling, Lio didn’t expect Galo to tell him that. Pride burns in Lio’s chest. “Yeah! We’ll save the planet and the Burnish!” Deus X Machina shakes as Lio flares up.

When they’re this close, Galo can feel Lio’s flame like an extension of himself. They warm him from the inside out, from his head to his toes. When Galo gets them knocked out of the sky, Lio understands what he means when he says he just can’t get into the fight, that their mech looks too much like a cuddly marshmallow than a true fighting robot. Through the bond, Galo can feel Lio’s fond exasperation, and also, Lio’s idea for a redesign.

“Yeah!” Galo shoots up, hands ready at the console. “That’s more like it!”

Lio can’t explain the warm feeling in his heart at Galo’s childlike excitement, but Galo’s heart responds in kind. With the mech remade, they move as one. Kray staggers, but he’s still too powerful.

The Lio de Galon is flagging. “We can’t win like this,” Galo complains. They’re collapsed on the edge of the Parnassus. Their mech is in pieces, one arm destroyed and one leg just as useless. Galo’s mind flashes with things that would help, but the one thing he keeps coming back to he doesn’t have. He lost it in the bottom of the lake.

“You want your Matoi, right?” Lio’s moving before Galo can say anything else. “I’ve got it.” Their mech is repaired and off the floor in a flash. Galo kicks up a beam and Lio transforms it into his Matoi.

“Awesome!” Galo strikes a pose. Declares their new title.

Together they attack.

7

After they push through Krayzor X’s final attack, the mech is completely destroyed. Lio is warming Galo as best he can, but they’re both freezing.

Through chattering teeth, Galo manages to ask, “Is he dead?”

Kray himself answers that question. “Do you really want to save your brothers that much, Lio Fotia? You can’t! Your brothers are destined to die!”

Galo feels Lio’s rage before Lio moves.

_I’m going to kill him!_

“Lio, no!” Galo makes a grab for Lio’s sleeve, but Lio’s faster. He pushes Galo’s head down in his scramble out, and then there’s no stopping him.

Lio’s most of the way to Kray before Galo even gets out of the mech. He hears Lio yell something about never forgiving Kray before the world lights up pink. Kray vanishes under the full fury of Lio’s flames.

Until he doesn’t. As it turns out, Kray Foresight is a Burnish too.

But then Kray has Lio in a burning grip and it doesn’t matter anymore. Galo has his pistol out and is moving before he thinks. All he can focus on is Lio - his anger, his betrayal, his fear. Kray is going to use Lio to restart the engine, and Galo knows for a fact that Lio will not survive if that happens.

He takes a desperate shot, knowing that Kray’s flames are too hot, too strong for his pistol to do any good, but he has to try. Kray knocks him flat like it’s nothing. It hurts more than Galo cares to admit, hearing that his hero was the reason his parents died. That Kray _used him_ as a stepping stone and viewed him as nothing more. This time, Galo gets the confirmation he didn’t before.

“I made you a Burning Rescue member because I thought you’d finally die. But you kept coming back! No matter what you were always there! It’s the end for you, you eyesore of an idiot!” Kray snaps his fingers and flames rush forward.

Galo can hear Lio scream his name, and then Lio’s flames are in front of him, protecting him from the brunt of the attack. Galo can feel Lio’s want to protect, but it’s not enough. The Promare may respond to the user, but Kray’s flames are stronger.

As if sensing this, Lio’s flames drop and vanish, and Galo is shot off the side of the ship. He can hear Lio’s scream and feels the immediate rush of grief. _Galo! No!_

Galo hopes they both make it out alive.

8

Galo survives. When Lio’s flames vanished, they went into Galo. They took the brunt of the fall and healed what they couldn’t save. They responded to Lio’s want to protect and save Galo in the best way they could, and now Galo has to return the favor.

Lio’s flames protect him from Kray’s last ditch attack. They wrap around his fist and power up his punch, knocking Kray out so that he can get to Lio.

When Galo pulls Lio out of the machine he’s already crumbling into ash. He’s missing an arm and chunks of his hair. What’s worse - when Lio was in the machine Galo could feel his pain. It was overwhelming and debilitating, tinged with sadness and the feeling of ultimate failure. Lio thought he had let everyone down. But now, with Lio on the ground in front of him, grey and not breathing, Galo can’t feel _anything._

Ever since he was little, Galo has felt Lio’s presence like a warmth next to his heart. He could feel Lio’s heartbeat, and now there’s nothing but stillness. It’s cold. Galo hadn’t realized how used to Lio’s presence he was until it was gone.

But Galo still had Lio’s flames. In the quiet, they were whispering to him. _Save him, save him._ Scenes from the cave flash in Galo’s mind. Lio leaning over that girl, breathing fire and life into him. The Promare keep repeating that scene, over and over.

“Alright! I got it!” Galo suspends the flames between his hands, bites into it, and then leans down to push life back into Lio. Lio’s failure flashes through his mind, but Galo pushes it away. Where Lio failed, he _will_ succeed. He _can’t_ let Lio die, not after everything they’ve been through. _I will save you!_

Galo feels the instant Lio’s flames take hold. They settle in Lio’s chest, and the warmth is back in Galo’s. Underneath him, Lio is taking in a shuddering breath. Lio’s flesh is knitting back together, reforming out of the ash.

“Galo..?” _Did you save me?_

“Welcome back, Lio.” The relief that floods through him is dizzying. Galo can’t pinpoint when he started caring so much about the boy in his arms (did it start when he was a kid? That night in the cave?), but the sight of Lio half dead on the ground was more than Galo could bear. So Galo doesn’t focus on it, he can’t. “I lit a fire for you! For the first time in my life! You jerk!”

Lio just grins. He can see into Galo’s heart and mind just like Galo can see into his. He knows that Galo is ignoring what he can’t process right now. _Galo._

Galo whirls around, eyes locked with Lio’s.

Lio has a plan in mind, Galo can feel it.

“Let’s burn the world down, Galo Thymos.” Lio shares with Galo what he learned when hesynced with the Promare in the pod. They had connected to Lio, told him that their combustion was incomplete, that in order to go home they needed to burn out.

Galo’s heart stops, starts. Lio can feel his indignation. “You- you can’t just ask a firefighter to do that!”

 _I know._ Lio’s more amused by it than Galo figures he has the right to be. “We need your firefighter’s soul.” Lio must know that Galo will follow him anywhere because he’s already walking towards the pod.

9

Kray wakes up when the pod starts glowing. He’s confused, and Galo supposed he has a right to be. They must make an odd sight, a Burnish and a firefighter, getting ready to burn the world to the ground. But if Lio says it will work, then Galo trusts him.

“What are you doing!” Kray shouts.

“Going firefighting!” Galo points a finger at Kray and a triumphant grin stretches across his face. “We’re putting out the core’s fire and your ambitions!”

Lio blazes as bright as Galo has ever seen him and the pod starts to spin. Lio calls on the rest of the Burnish and thousands of individual flames combine with Lio’s. The pod overflows.

The flames flow forth like water. Galo wills them to protect the people and as much of the earth as he can, while Lio wills them to consume until they’re out of fuel. The pod takes off, settling on top of the frozen over remains of the Lio de Galon.

_Now, Galo!_

_You got it!_

The ice on the mech shatters, bursting under the power of their flames. Galo and Lio aren’t separate anymore, they’re one. They’re in space now, looking down on an earth that they know they can save. They’re the Galo de Lion, and they’re going to burn out.

They lift a fist and slam it down on the earth. Flames ripple out, burning everything that isn’t protected. When they speak, they do so in unison, two voices combined into one. “I’ll put you out with my burning soul!”

They do it again, and again, and again, until there’s nothing left on the earth to burn and their flames shoots out, seeking the next hottest thing in the galaxy. It latches onto the sun and explodes outwards, burning everything it can reach.

But they bring it back. Using the Matoi, they gather up all the fire they had started and pull it back into their souls. Galo de Lion shatters, and the flames are gone.

Galo doesn’t see as much as he feels the Promare leave Lio. Their departure leaves a chill in Lio’s bones, an emptiness in his chest that even Galo’s own burning soul can’t completely fill yet. But Lio isn’t sad. He’s happy, knowing that it’s finally over and that the Promare are going home at last.

10

Together, they watch the sun rise on a new world. Much of it has been destroyed, either burnt to ash or crushed when the Parnassus fell to the earth. But Galo’s heart is filled with joy and excitement for what is to come, so Lio isn’t worried. They’ll come back even stronger.

“You and your buddies are gonna help clean up, right, Lio!” It’s not a question or a choice, and Lio knows it.

He tries to protest anyways. “But-” Even though the Burnish don’t really exist anymore, Lio knows breaking through years of prejudice isn’t going to be easy.

Galo beams and Lio’s worries settle. “Don’t worry! If the haters give you heat, I’ll put them out!”

Lio can feel the truth behind the words. The feeling of Galo’s protective nature warms Lio from the inside out. His face burns alongside his heart. But just like Galo, Lio isn’t ready to face the fluttery feelings in their hearts. When they’re ready, after the world has healed and they’ve both settled, they can discuss it then.

For now, Lio settles with flicking Galo’s nose like did in the cave. “You really are an idiot, huh?” Lio can’t keep the fondness he feels for Galo from seeping into his words, his thoughts, his heart. It bleeds over the bond, filling Galo with warmth.

Gracefully, Galo doesn’t say anything about it. He rubs his nose and grins. “Yeah! The universe’s number 1 firefighting idiot!” _Your idiot._

They fistbump, softly, and turn to face the new day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading!! 
> 
> if you were curious, the lyrics are from [this song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wFV8-8ux14) aka my personal galolio song
> 
> as always, catch me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/ninemelodies)/[tumblr](ninemelodies.tumblr.com)

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!! 
> 
> if you were curious, the lyrics are from [this song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wFV8-8ux14) aka my personal galolio song
> 
> as always you can catch me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/GODF0RSAKEN)/[tumblr](https://ninemelodies.tumblr.com/)


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